The Amazon Runoff

If you’ve been wondering where Amazon HQ2 might land, The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that the company is in late-stage talks with cities that included Crystal City, Virginia; Dallas, Texas; and New York City.

Apparently the talks with local officials in some of the other 20 cities on the shortlist, including Denver, Toronto, Atlanta, Nashville, and Raleigh “have cooled.”

You can just hear the mayors, chamber of commerce heads, and real estate developers screaming in the jaws of potential victory and the agony of possible Amazonian defeat (depending on their respective locales, of course).

The story also hints that an announcement could be made as soon as this month, and cites an interview Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos did recently with author Walter Isaacson about how the company was going about making its decision:

For a decision like that, as far as I know, the best way to make it is you collect as much data as you can, you immerse yourself in that data, but then make the decision with your heart.

LATE-BREAKING UPDATE! The Journal is now reporting that Amazon plans to split its second HQ evenly between two locations rather than picking one city for HQ2.

The driving force behind the decision to build two equal offices in addition to the company’s headquarters in Seattle is recruiting enough tech talent, according to the person familiar with the company’s plans. The move will also ease potential issues with housing, transit and other areas where adding tens of thousands of workers could cause problems.

Under the new plan, Amazon would split the workforce with 25,000 employees in each city, the person said.